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Kathleen Parker

Yes, Ted Cruz is Hispanic “enough”

Translation: If you disagree with the consensus of the demographic to which you belong, whether black, female, gay, Hispanic or whatever, then you are essentially not part of the conversation. At least not the one that matters — the vote-organizing constituency.

President Obama suffered similarly from a not-black-enough trope that began circulating when he first emerged as the potential Democratic candidate. Despite his truly African American bona fides , his civil rights résumé was lacking and his ancestors hadn’t been slaves. What could the son of a Kenyan know about being a black American? …

But Cruz is also a conservative, former law professor and solicitor general of Texas with deep qualms about pretending that laws don’t matter. This does not mean he’s anti-immigrant, the preferred invective for any who oppose giving special status to people who came here without permission. In a quirk of the new, diverse Republican Party, the immigration reform legislation Cruz opposes was created in part by fellow Hispanic superstar Marco Rubio.

Rather than insist that Cruz fall in line, shouldn’t we be celebrating a clear victory for true diversity? That is, diversity of thought. Here we have two conservative Republicans of Hispanic origin who have different views on an important issue. Wasn’t this always the point of our grand American experiment?

President Obama suffered similarly from a not-black-enough trope that began circulating when he first emerged as the potential Democratic candidate. Despite his truly African American bona fides , his civil rights résumé was lacking and his ancestors hadn’t been slaves. What could the son of a Kenyan know about being a black American? …

Yep, that happened here. So I fully expect Cruz Birthers to match the ugly ethnic-bigotry we all witnessed last presidential-election.